Safeguarding Policy

Our commitment

SEN Help is a directory and information service for families of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. The children at the heart of what we do are, by definition, more likely to be vulnerable to harm, abuse, and exploitation than the general population. We take that seriously.

We are committed to:

• Prioritising the welfare and safety of children and vulnerable adults in every decision we make
• Acting promptly and proportionately on any concern brought to our attention
• Operating an open, accessible, and trustworthy service where families can raise concerns without fear
• Working within the law and in partnership with statutory authorities

This policy sets out our approach. It applies to all staff, contractors, directors, and to all Professionals listed on the SEN Help Directory.

Scope

This policy covers:

• Children (anyone under 18) and young adults who interact with SEN Help directly or through a listed Professional
• Vulnerable adults, including parents or carers who may be at risk of harm
• The content we publish and distribute, which must not in itself cause harm

It applies wherever our services operate: the website sen.help, any associated products, email channels, and interactions mediated through the Directory.

We do not collect data directly from children. The service processes information that, by inference, concerns children, and we handle it under UK GDPR Article 9. Our safeguarding scope covers under-18s reached through the service or through a listed Professional.

Legal framework

This policy is drafted with reference to the key UK legal and statutory framework, including:

• The Children Act 1989 and Children Act 2004
• Working Together to Safeguard Children (statutory guidance, as updated from time to time)
• Keeping Children Safe in Education (where relevant to schools-facing content)
• The Care Act 2014 (safeguarding adults at risk)
• The Equality Act 2010
• The Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR
• The Children and Families Act 2014 and the SEND Code of Practice 0 to 25 (2015)

SEN Help is a private company, not a school or a public body, so several of these instruments do not bind us directly. We align with them voluntarily because they are the recognised standard of good safeguarding practice.

Definitions

Safeguarding means protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse, neglect, or exploitation, and promoting their welfare.

Abuse includes physical, emotional, sexual, and financial abuse, neglect, domestic abuse, and online harm. It can be carried out by adults or by other children and may be deliberate or the result of ignorance or circumstance.

A child is anyone under 18.

A vulnerable adult is an adult who, because of disability, illness, mental capacity, or circumstances, may be unable to protect themselves from harm.

A safeguarding concern is any information, observation, or disclosure that suggests a child or vulnerable adult has been, is being, or is at risk of being harmed.

Roles and responsibilities

Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL)

The DSL holds overall responsibility for safeguarding within SEN Help, including receiving, assessing and prioritising concerns, liaising with statutory authorities, and reviewing this policy annually.

Current DSL: Bupe Lumbeta, safeguarding@sen.help, available on request via email (appointed 24 June 2026)
Deputy DSL: Not currently appointed. Cover arrangements: SEN Help is a small service and the DSL is currently its only trained safeguarding reviewer. Where a covering person trained for the role is engaged, under written confidentiality terms, they review flagged items on the same timescales during the DSL’s absence. If no covering person is in place and the DSL is unavailable, review may take longer than the timescales in section 8; we say so plainly rather than promise cover we do not yet have. No concern should ever wait for us: if a child or adult is at immediate risk, use 999 and the statutory routes in sections 7.3 and 13, which work without us. On returning, the DSL reviews everything received during the absence as first priority and refers anything urgent to the statutory agencies straight away. Appointing a deputy DSL is a standing action as the team grows.

All staff and contractors

Every person working for SEN Help must:

• Be familiar with this policy and know how to raise a concern
• Take any concern seriously, no matter how small it appears
• Report concerns to the DSL without delay
• Never promise confidentiality to a person making a disclosure, because some disclosures must be shared with statutory services

Listed Professionals

Every Professional listed on the Directory must:

• Evidence to us a DBS check they hold through their own work, at the highest level their role is eligible for under DBS rules. For any role that involves contact with children this means an enhanced DBS check; since 21 January 2026 self-employed professionals in eligible paid roles can obtain their own enhanced check through a DBS umbrella body. The check must be current, meaning registered with the DBS Update Service or issued within the last 3 years. DBS certificates have no official expiry date, so this currency standard is our own adopted rule, not a legal one
• Maintain their own written safeguarding policy appropriate to their practice
• Follow the safeguarding rules of their regulator (for example, HCPC or SRA)
• Report safeguarding concerns to the relevant statutory authority without delay
• Notify SEN Help within 5 working days of a safeguarding concern that involves a client introduced through our Platform, unless doing so would prejudice an investigation

Recognising abuse and harm

Signs that a child or vulnerable adult may be at risk of harm include, but are not limited to:

• Disclosure, direct or indirect, of abuse or neglect
• Unexplained injuries, distress, or behavioural changes
• Signs of neglect, including unmet medical or educational needs
• Accounts by a parent or carer of violence, coercion, or exploitation in the home
• Reports of inappropriate contact by a professional, including a professional listed on our Directory
• Concerns that a child's SEND-related needs are being denied in a way that is causing serious harm to their welfare

We do not expect staff or Professionals to investigate or diagnose abuse. We expect them to report concerns promptly to the people who have the authority and expertise to act.

Reporting a concern

How to raise a concern

Anyone with a safeguarding concern involving SEN Help, its content, its staff, or a Professional listed on our Directory can raise it with us by:

• Email (preferred, creates a record): safeguarding@sen.help
• Or: hello@sen.help with “Safeguarding” in the subject line
• Telephone: Available on request via email

What to include

Where it is safe to do so, tell us:

• What has happened or what you are worried about
• Who is involved, including names where known
• When and where the concern arose
• Whether the child, vulnerable adult, or anyone else is in immediate danger
• Whether the concern has been reported to any other body (police, children's services, the professional's regulator)

Immediate danger

If a child or adult is in immediate danger, do not wait for us. Contact the emergency services on 999. Then let us know as soon as you are able.

How we respond

Two different timing promises apply here, deliberately: items flagged by our automated safeguarding filter are reviewed by the DSL within one working day, and anyone who reports a concern to us receives an acknowledgement within 2 working days. Both promises are subject to the DSL cover arrangements in section 5.1. If a child or adult is in immediate danger, use 999 as set out in section 7.3 rather than waiting for us.

The DSL reviews the concern and decides on appropriate action, which may include: gathering further information, contacting the relevant Local Authority children's services or adult safeguarding team, contacting the police, suspending a Professional's Listing pending investigation, removing content, or taking no further action (with a recorded reason).

Where the concern involves a Professional listed on the Directory, the DSL may suspend the Listing immediately, without prior notice to the Professional, where this is necessary to protect the public.

The DSL records every concern, the decisions taken, and the reasons for them. These records are retained securely for a minimum of 7 years from case closure. That period is our adopted minimum, not a single statutory rule: there is no one statutory retention period for safeguarding records, and we extend retention case by case (for example where an allegation concerns a professional, which may warrant longer), recording the reason.

Where required by law or in the public interest, we will co-operate fully with statutory agencies, including by providing information and evidence.

We will keep the person who raised the concern informed of progress, so far as we lawfully can, while respecting confidentiality and any ongoing investigation.

Content safeguarding

We recognise that the information we publish has the potential to affect vulnerable families. We therefore commit to:

• Publishing legal and rights-based content that is accurate, properly sourced, and updated as the law changes
• Not overstating what legal action can achieve, and not encouraging action that would not be in a child's best interests
• Including signposting to statutory and emergency services where content deals with distressing topics
• Reviewing flagged content promptly and correcting errors openly
• Never publishing identifying details of individual children or young people without appropriate consent and, where applicable, review by their parent or carer

Confidentiality and information sharing

We treat safeguarding information as confidential and share it only with those who need it to protect the person at risk or to act on the concern.

We share information with statutory agencies where required by law, where the safety of a child or vulnerable adult requires it, or where sharing is necessary in the public interest.

We process safeguarding information lawfully under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. Our lawful basis is the safeguarding of vulnerable individuals (a recognised legitimate interest under the UK GDPR, added by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025), or otherwise our legitimate interests, with vital interests where someone’s life or safety is at immediate risk. For special category data we rely on the safeguarding condition in paragraph 18 of Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 2018, and we maintain the Appropriate Policy Document that condition requires. Where the law separately requires us to provide information (for example a lawful request from safeguarding partners under section 16H of the Children Act 2004, or a court order), we comply with that legal obligation.

Our detailed approach to data handling is set out in our Privacy Policy.

Training and review

The DSL completes safeguarding training from a recognised provider on appointment and refreshes it at least every 2 years.

If SEN Help recruits staff or engages contractors into roles that touch safeguarding processes or parent data, we follow safer-recruitment principles: references, identity checks, and DBS checks appropriate to the role, completed before access is granted.

All staff complete a safeguarding induction before taking up their role. This includes awareness of this policy, recognising signs of abuse, and knowing how to report a concern.

Listed Professionals are expected to meet the continuing professional development standards set by their regulator.

This policy is reviewed annually by the DSL and updated sooner if there is a material change in the law, in our services, or arising from lessons learned from a concern.

Allegations against a person working with SEN Help

Any allegation against a staff member, contractor, director, or listed Professional is treated with the utmost seriousness.

Where the allegation concerns a person working directly for SEN Help, we follow the guidance in Working Together to Safeguard Children, which includes referring to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) in the area concerned where appropriate.

Where the allegation concerns a listed Professional, we will: suspend the Listing pending investigation; notify the Professional's regulator where applicable; co-operate with statutory agencies; and take a final decision on Directory status in accordance with the evidence.

We will not warn a person that an allegation has been made against them where doing so could prejudice an investigation or place a child or adult at further risk.

Escalation and external contacts

If you have a safeguarding concern and cannot reach us, or you are dissatisfied with our response, contact:

• NSPCC helpline: 0808 800 5000, help@nspcc.org.uk
• Childline (for children and young people): 0800 1111
• Samaritans (for any adult struggling to cope): 116 123, free, 24 hours a day
• Shout crisis text line: text SHOUT to 85258, free, 24 hours a day
• Your Local Authority children's services: via your Local Authority's website
• Adult Social Services (for vulnerable adults): via your Local Authority
• Police (non-emergency): 101
• Police (emergency): 999
• HCPC concerns: hcpc-uk.org
• SRA concerns: sra.org.uk

Contact

Designated Safeguarding Lead: Bupe Lumbeta
Email: safeguarding@sen.help
General email: hello@sen.help
Post: 167-169 Great Portland Street, 5th Floor, London, W1W 5PF

This policy is reviewed annually and after any material safeguarding concern.